


Back to the Kindergarten - Into the Valley

by Dorsia



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game), Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Anxiety, Episode: s05e08 Back to the Kindergarten, I can't even read fanfiction it gets my heart aflutter, I don't understand AO3 Tags as is, My First AO3 Post, Vacation, baby don't hurt me, what is tense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-12
Updated: 2018-02-12
Packaged: 2019-03-17 05:57:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13652847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dorsia/pseuds/Dorsia
Summary: Peridot is riding home to Beach City, passing through the lush countryside of Stardew Valley. But when she spies what looks like a certain special barn, she bolts off the train towards a new adventure. Story picks upimmediatelyafter S5E8.This will be my first, maybe only piece of fiction i'll ever write... ever? Being an old CHWM with no socially-acceptable reason to enjoy cartoons I sat around thinking for months about how I couldn't do it and wouldn't do it. but I'm gonna get off my anxiety horse and write this damn thing. Hoping to get at least a tiny chapter in every few days until I get this all out of my system.





	Back to the Kindergarten - Into the Valley

Steven, Peridot and Amethyst sat arms crossed around each other, staring out at the fields of sunflowers and the surrounding hills. Uncrossing her arms from the other two, Peridot shielded her eyes as the glare of the sunset bounced off the fields of yellow petals. She frowned, trying to catch a closer look at a singular flower as the train rumbled by. Leaning forward from her companions and tracking her head left to right, she looked the specimen up and down with a scientific scrutiny. She frowned. 

“Emhh, taller” she muttered to herself. Steven, who had been absently eyeing the gentle hills, turned to her quizzically.

“Taller?”

“Yes Steven, the sunflowers. They’re taller”

“Oh! Uhhh, taller than what?”

Peridot glared at him. “The sunflowers _I_ grow Steven! The median height and floret count are well above what I’ve grown back at…”

Peridot clamped her mouth shut, her frown deepening into a scowl. She drew her knees together and looked down at the train tracks. Steven shot a worried glance at an unaware Amethyst, who was fixated on a bug crawling on the edge of the train door. 

“Well, uhh”. Steven stammered, and took his hand off Peridot’s back to scratch behind his head. Amethyst likewise dropped her hand and shifted to watch the bug clamber to the outside of the train, still oblivious. “Maybe the flowers get more sun around here? Or maybe it’s a different type of sunflower that grows bigger? Or! Maybe…”

“Negative” Peridot cut in, “Albedo in this valley is slightly less thanks to the surrounding hills, and this subspecies is decidedly identical.” She tilted her head forward again, this time studying the base of the flowers. Root structure is healthy. Moisture levels seem comparable. In all respects these are just like the sunflowers I’ve grown before. Just… bigger.” Peridot drew the last word through gritted teeth and looked directly ahead over the fields. 

“Peridot,” said Steven. “You can’t just compare yourself to… y’know… a professional who…”

Peridot shifted her head slightly, shooting him a death glare. Steven clammed up. Turning back towards the fields, Peridot raised her left hand high into the air. Concerned and confused, Steven swiveled his feet up and around the edge of the car. Staring back into the darkness of train car at some sudden movement in a hay bale, he gave a quick yelp and ducked as a flat metal object rushed out and over his head.

In one smooth motion, Peridot caught in her hand the tablet she had stashed in the hay and brought it down in front of her. Amethyst’s concentration broken, she turned first towards the scowling Peridot and then towards Steven, who shrugged dejectedly and made his way behind the bales to an alcove in the back of the car. Amethyst opened and closed her mouth but said nothing to Peridot, who had pulled up an article on _Helianthus annuus_ , the common sunflower. Amethyst stood up and made her way to the back of the car to Steven, where they traded words with each other quietly, trying not to disturb Peridot. 

After several minutes of what might have been the angriest analysis of a Wikipedia article on sunflower growth methods, Peridot transitioned to researching the local environment. The tablet’s GPS and map system helped to put a name to this place – Stardew Valley. But after a quick detour into the annual rainfall and humidity statistics of this Stardew Valley, Peridot put down her tablet, gave an exasperated sigh, and lifted her head up.

The sun had begun to set behind the mountains and left streaks of burgundy and pink in the sky. She could concentrate on none of it. All the little frustrations of the day began to coalesce in her mind, and it all seemed centered around these sunflowers. Sunflowers that from what she could see grew bigger here, with all other variables accounted for. Sunflowers that could not for some reason grow in the kindergarten, despite her best efforts. Why were her efforts crushed when some backwoods farmer with a quarter of her intellect could make masterpieces rise from the earth? She shifted her gaze blankly towards the valley, her thoughts and emotions blending together in a sticky tar of self-pity. A ray of sunset light suddenly filled her vision, causing her to squint. As the light faded, she studied the source of the distraction as the train moved along - the roof of a small house apart from the cluster of homes in the far off town square.

Unquestionably. A roof. But a curved roof? And why was it so tall?

No wait, it wasn’t a house. It was the top of a silo. A silo sitting next to a barn.

A bright red barn. A barn that looked like…

 

At least seven distinct thoughts raced through Peridot’s mind. The weight of the implications, possibilities, pure irrational hopes and very rational fears hit her in the stomach like a deft gut punch from the universe. She broke her gaze and pitched her head downwards, taking shallow breaths for a minute. The floodgates of possibility had opened up and she was swept up in the current. Was that the barn she shared with Lazuli? Why was it there? Or was it not? Don’t overreact. Don’t underreact! Sunflowers? Unsteadily, Peridot got to her feet and craned her neck outwards into the whipping air of the train, but the landscape had only gotten darker. She could only make out the outline of the barn (are you sure it was a barn?) Along with the lights of the city and the profile of sunflowers as the train sped further away. 

Peridot’s breathing steadied. Of course the proper decision would be to wait. Her friends would be worried sick if she left (she looks back at the train car, her companions tucked away in the alcove unaware).

She had all the information at her fingertips to figure this out. Perhaps she can cross reference maps of the area tomorrow morning from the comfort of the house (looking down, she fumbles with and grabs her tablet). 

Any thought of pursuing this absurd line of thinking would be ludicrous (she takes two steps back). 

Dangerous (knees bent)!

Irrational (weight forward, eyes up)! 

But before her mind can catch up with her, Peridot is off the train. Wind whipping around her, she jumps in a gentle arc, tablet in hand, directly towards the sunflower fields.  
No, wait. Not directly towards the sunflower fields.

Towards a barbed wire fence. In front of the sunflower fields.

…

Oh dear.


End file.
